He fought in the Wars of Religion under the maréchal de Matignon and was wounded at the siege of Saint-Lô (1574).

[3] La Fresnaye was a disciple of Ronsard, but, while praising the reforms of the Pléiade he laid stress on the continuity of French literary history.

He was a student of the trouvères and the old chroniclers, and desired to see French poetry set on a national basis.

These views he expounded in an Art poetique, begun at the desire of Henry III in 1574, but not published until 1605.

[2] His Forestries appeared in 1555; his Diverses poésies, including the Art poétique, the Satyres françoises, addressed to various distinguished contemporaries, and the Idylles, with some epigrams and sonnets, appeared in 1605.